Weinstein's downfall must be traumatizing for Hollywood hypocrites

National Post, 11 October 2017

The tale so often replicated in other parts of our culture — clergy, business, military, sports, politics — has now come to be told about the celebrity world

The cultural import of the Harvey Weinstein revelations is that now, after the scourge of sexual predation has been exposed in various sectors of society — clergy, business, military, hockey, football, politics — it has finally touched a sector deeply corrupt and most influential, that of celebrity entertainment.

It’s not quite accurate to speak of the The New York Times reportage on Harvey Weinstein’s predatory sexual behaviour as “revealing.” Rather, it confirmed what the most influential people in the Hollywood-New York movie and publishing world knew for a long time. The recent reporting just let us ordinary people in on the secret, and meant that Weinstein’s friends, from the Clintons on down, had to engage in ritual acts of condemnation.

The Weinstein story further indicates that the heroes of the progressive left — think Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton or Roman Polanski — no longer get a pass from the celebrity and media elite when it comes to sexual predation.